I had amazing food luck this week after dreaming about food. What a coincidence. I planned a day out with my cousin in Flushing. Flushing isn't exactly foreign territory, but I wouldn't say I am very familiar with the Chinese restaurants. Neither have I been eating in Flushing a lot. However coming back here, I see that a lot of new trendy places are opening catering to young people at affordable prices.
The first place I went to was Prince Tea House. They turned up the heat quite strong and I couldn't wait to take off my coat. Their website wasn't too helpful since it didn't show any pictures of their Flushing location. Yelp did a much better job. I ordered a pot of Top Fancy Oolong Tea ($7.75) and a Mille Feuille ($6.75). I couldn't really decide on what tea so I went with a oolong. While my order was in the process, I took a look at the decor. Prince Tea House is a modern and antique establishment. The modern part would be the use of dark wooden flooring and high ceilings. They used painted brick wall and nailed shelves to put decorations on. The antique part would be their black chandelier and an old fashioned camera as part of their decor. There's actually a lot more that I wanted to look more at like the upholstered seating against the wall, but I'm not here to study interior design.
When the tea came, I saw that this was dainty part of the business. Your pot of tea was housed in an English styled teapot over a small burner. It also came with a cup of sugar and your drinking cup of course. They serve you raw sugar as opposed to the white sugar. The pot may look big, but it only had a little less than four cups of tea. The fourth cup being closer to half a cup. The oolong was oxidized heavily so it tasted more like a traditional black tea. I wouldn't say that it felt like top grade oolong though. I was a little disappointed when I saw my mille feuille. I thought it would be the traditional kind where they stacked many layers of pastry and cream. Instead this one is two puff pastry with cream over a berry sauce and scattered berries. The cream is a lightly sweetened cold whipped cream. The pastry must have been baked this afternoon or even earlier during the day. The blueberries looked ripe, but were actually very tart. I expected them to be sweet. The little raspberries and slice of strawberry proved to be much sweeter. The berry sauce was also lightly sweetened with a very mild taste of berry. Overall it was simple and balanced, but not something I found overly amazing or shocking. I would most likely order a cake next time.
After Prince Tea House, my cousin and I walked around a bit before settling for dinner at Red Bowl. Red Bowl looked like it was enjoying very good business. When we sat down and as the hour passed, new customers came in and the restaurant was full. Red Bowl is a Chinese restaurant featuring Chaozhou or Teochew styled food. I know Teochew food is known for their signature braising sauce (卤味). So we ordered half a soy sauce braised duck, stir fried chicken and eggplant, and a bowl of wontons in soup. All were priced around $6.75 each. What a great deal. I noticed that for their menu, they encourage their customers to mix and match their stir-fries. So if I didn't like eggplant, I could have gotten a chicken stir fried with bell peppers or beef stir fried with broccoli.
First off, the place is clean and the waitresses are friendly. They don't give you an attitude problem and thank you for your patronage. Food comes pretty fast in my opinion considering that they cook it fresh and you will always have hot tea. It tasted like a good pu-erh which I give thumbs up to. Some places give you cheap nasty pu-erh. My wontons were served with half an egg, two slivers of bok choy, and flat rice sheets in a clear broth. The wontons were sadly not entirely shrimp. It was half shrimp and half pork filling with pork overriding the shrimp. What can I say, shrimp is expensive after all. I'll let it slide for $6.75. The duck, were it not so raw, would have been great. It was a little under seasoned though and since it was still pink in the center, they clearly did not braise it long enough. If they braised it longer, the flavors would have been stronger. The best dish that night was the chicken and eggplant. The eggplant is nicely fried to retain its bright purple hue and then cooked together with the chicken. The chicken tasted fresh, It wasn't stringy and old, nor did it have that typical white meat taste that I hate. It made me regret ordering wontons when I should have ordered another stir fry. I will come back for you next time!
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